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Thursday, April 8, 2010

Socks and Shoes

The other day, I was getting ready to go outside and play ball with my sister, and as I was putting my socks and sneakers on, I put one sock on, then grabbed the sneaker for the other foot. I sighed and grabbed the other, thinking how inconvenient it was that socks fit either foot while shoes only fit one or the other. Then it occurred to me: people are a lot like socks and shoes.

Bear with me on this one, okay? Socks are the people who slip comfortably into any situation. Just like sock sizes refer to a range of shoe/foot sizes, and aren't left-right specific, these people are flexible, laid back, versatile, and generally comfortable. But you wouldn't want to go for a run with just socks on.

That's where shoes come in. We've all met them. These are the people that fit very comfortably into one or a few situations, and are a tad awkward everywhere else. You can always tell when one of these people is out of his or her element because it feels like putting a shoe on the wrong foot--it's just not quite right. The important thing to keep in mind about shoes, though, is that they're a lot better at protecting your feet from the rough, prickly, hot, cold, unfriendly ground than socks are. That's because in order to be so flexible, socks have to be thin. I don't mean to imply that sock-type people are superficial posers, but it's a "Jack-of-all-trades, master of none"-type scenario.

And I don't think you can categorize everyone completely as one or the other. For instance, I am very shoe-like in that I am rarely comfortable in socially demanding situations. I would much prefer to keep to myself, read a book, daydream, draw, etc. Even keeping a blog is easy because I can be purely me, without having to try to fit into some social sweater that's two sizes too small, or say, a right foot when I'm a left-foot shoe. See what I mean?

But I'm also a sock. I ski, I snowboard, I write, I draw, I like math, I play the saxophone, I taught myself to crochet--although I've neglected this skill recently, and I also used to ride horses. And I do/did all of these things with a certain level of skill, if I may say so myself. But I wouldn't dare to call myself an expert in any of these fields, and it's because I divide myself among all of these activities.

My sister, on the other hand, is undoubtedly a sock where I am a shoe. She is a social butterfly if I've ever seen one. She's a charmer no matter the occasion, and at times, I'm jealous of her, and I wish she could teach me to be a social sock. Unfortunately, I have not been able to learn this skill as easily as art, math, and music. It's frustrating.

So it's possible, unlike the actual footwear, to be both a sock and a shoe. Similarly, though, socks and shoes tend to work together pretty well. And while you may be able to wear any socks with any shoes, you wouldn't want to mismatch shoes. They'd probably clash.